So I recently purchased another little noise-maker to join my Stylophone, Gakken SX-150, and FM3 Buddha Box in my modest collection of annoying sound devices. This little guy is called the Meeblip and is the brain child of James Grahame of Retro Thing. Like the Gakken SX-150, this is something you have to put together yourself, although it doesn’t require any soldering. Unlike any of the other aforementioned boxes, the Meeblip can be controlled over MIDI. Actually, this guy is really a full-on monosynth, which kind of surprised me. From what I gather, the Meeblip is a monophonic virtual analog synth, meaning the synthesis is performed on a chip rather than older, conventional methods like DCO and VCO sound generators. But no matter, it still sounds great. And every parameter has a switch or dial just like those old monosynths from the ’70s. The versatility of the Meeblip is pretty amazing once you start messing around with it. Of course you don’t have a fancy modulation matrix or anything like that, but the simplicity of the design makes it a lot of fun to experiment with. I guess my only real complaint is the USB port, which is only used for power. This means you need to have some USB enable device close by, like a laptop, to power the Meeblip. I use something called MintyBoost! for my USB power. The real problem with the USB port is expectations though. I see that port and assume I can stream audio or MIDI over it (which the Meeblip doesn’t support). I would rather just see the USB port dropped in favor of a battery compartment.

UPDATE: There is now an external power supply option for owners of early Meeblips. All new orders ship with the external power supply.

Yeah, a few people grumbled a bit about the USB port. Our thinking was that it was a cheap and lightweight way to get power into the synth. However, we quickly discovered that some USB power sources are much noisier than others.

We’ll be releasing a 9vdc wallwart-powered version of MeeBlip in a few days. It’ll cost $10 more than the original ($139). Anyone who owns a USB version will be able to buy the new daughterboard for $10, too.

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admin | February 12th, 2011 at 4:58 pm

Thanks for the comment James. I continue to enjoy the MeeBlip. And I’ll probably pick-up the daughterboard when it become available.